the smart thinking book
TRANSCRIPT
SMART THINKING60 BURSTS OF BUSINESS
BRILLIANCE
SMART THINKINGSome examples. There are 60 in the book.
GROWTH ~ COMMUNICATION INNOVATION ~ CREATIVITY RELATIONSHIPS ~ THINKING
FORMAT• Choose an area such as growth• Stick a provocation on the wall• Read the stimulus sheet for one
minute• Apply to your business, brief, or
issue• 5 minutes per thought• Repeat ten times• One hour per area • Move to any of five other areas• Or repeat for a new brief or issue
STIMULUS
LET’S DO SOME SMART THINKING
GROWTH
1. PLANNING• Do you have a plan?• How long should it
take to design one?• Do you need one at
all?
2. MODELS• What can a model
tell us?• Are your models
reliable?• How should they be
used?
3. TARGETS• Why have a target?• Numerical or
thematic?• Absolute or relative?
COMMUNICATION
1. TOPICALITY• What is your point?• What is your point of
view?• Are you prepared to
say “I don’t know”?
2. ATTITUDE• Should you change
the nature of your meetings?
• Could you adopt assertive inquiry as a discussion style?
• Are colleagues respected?
3. CLARITY• Do we really need to
do this?• Are we just doing
rather than thinking?
• Do we churn out stuff just for the sake of it?
INNOVATION
1. APPROACH• How curious are
you?• What do you use as
stimulus?• What habits could
you change or introduce?
2. OPPORTUNITY• What is the nearest
Adjacent Possible?• What is the simplest
thing to do?• What next single
step can you take?
3. NOVELTY• Do you or a
colleague keep saying “We tried that before and it didn’t work.”?
• Can you break with the past?
• How can you ‘forget what you know’?
CREATIVITY
1. ENVIRONMENT• How stimulating is
your office?• What could be
changed cheaply?• Where should we
generate our ideas?
2. AMBIGUITY• Where are we on
this project?• Is it unclear or
heavily regimented?• How do we resolve
the tension between fuzziness and apparent control?
3. ORIGINALITY• What if this thing
didn’t exist at all?• What if we were
designing it from scratch?
• Can we start from first principles?
RELATIONSHIPS
1. ATTITUDE• Is your business far
too serious?• Are you?• What can be done to
lighten things up, without losing professionalism?
2. MOTIVATION• What’s in it for you?• What’s in it for
them?• How can we ensure
enough motivation to make the project a success?
3. HUMILITY• How can you bring
modesty to your work?
• How can you help your team?
• How can you help your clients or customers?
THINKING
1. THOUGHT• Do you have enough
time to think properly?
• If not, how can you create it?
• Do you and your colleagues place enough value on thinking time?
2. ACTION• Could you earmark a
Think, Do day or time period?
• Could the whole team?
• Could the whole business?
3. RESTRAINT• Can you resist the
temptation to do something, anything?
• Which current issue would be better left alone?
• Which areas are best left to sort themselves out?
BREVITY EQUALS INTELLIGENCE
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